5 Offbeat Books For Your Shelf
Because it’s crying out for some diversity
My parents had it so easy. They never had to think very hard about what I would like as a birthday present or a Christmas present or just a present for being an awesome child. I’d always be delighted with a book (or two!) and would strategize about the best way to read it. 200 pages? Okay, that’s 20 pages a day and we’ll make this book last 10 days. In reality, it hardly lasted a day as I would abandon all plans and dive headlong into a fascinating journey of make believe.
I’m not here to tell you something that you already know. You won’t get the usual culprits in this list, if I can help it. Unlike the myriad of websites recommending Amazon products that have the same darned things over and over again. No, BuzzFeed, I really do not want the microwave-safe popcorn popper(?) that flattens down for efficient storage. These books were unforgettable mile markers in my reading journey.
What I’ll attempt to do is color these entries with a small peek into what was going on in my life at the time. Some blurry visions. I think I’ll learn something about myself as I explore the past in a way I haven’t before.
1. The Wishing Jug & Other Stories (Enid Blyton)
I received this book as a birthday present from a person I admired a lot. I thought he had an exciting life. He used to work at a bank, but quit the job to pursue his bug for food & travel. He founded a catering company and also ran tours to various parts of India, most of them not the usual tourist traps. He had the knack of making friends easily and his enthusiasm for taking in the local food and culture definitely aided him in that. Each time he returned from a trip, he would regale us with funny and insightful stories.
I vividly remember standing in front of a hot stove one Sunday afternoon and learning how to make dosas. With the technique he taught me, I have always been able to make perfectly round and crisp dosas. I haven’t run into him in the last decade, but I hope he is well and still energized by his passion!
Coming back to the book, it was a compilation of short stories, illustrated with bright colors and it came from a literary place very different to what a young Indian brain back in the 90s is usually exposed to. This was my introduction to Enid Blyton, before the Famous Five and the Secret Seven series. I’ll never forget those summers.
2. The Live Bead (Nina Pavlova)
One of my uncles ran a publishing company back in the day. I was too young at the time to be interested in the kind of things they published. What I was interested in was knowing when he was going to visit us next. You see, he didn’t visit us often, but when he did he always bore some amazing gifts. And by amazing gifts, I mean books.
These would typically be titles that were very unheard of and not available in the bookstores in India. If I remember correctly, these were samples received from publishers in Russia, Ukraine and other places in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
A stark contrast to the previous book, these stories would be illustrated with drab colors. Lots of gray and brown. Even the blues and the greens seemed sombre. Along with the text, it exuded a certain kind of atmospheric sadness, with moments of happiness coming from small, everyday things.
I always imagined the tone of these books to mirror how life actually was in the Soviet countries. If you know of any movies that showcase childhood there in the 90s, do let me know.
3. Adventures In The Snow (Manmohan Singh Bawa)
I can’t recall what time of the year it was, but our school grounds hosted a massive fair every year. I realize now that these were very similar to county fairs here in the US. Rides, games, food stalls, pop-up book stores would make this a day that every kid in the school would look forward to. And there were A LOT of kids, 70 per class x 10 classes per grade x 10 grades. Over 7000! The day after the fair would be a fun one, where discussions in class revolved around the food and the rides the evening before.
So there I was, clutching a flimsy, pink admission ticket, searching for the book stalls. My parents never denied me if I asked for a book. Looking back, it was one of the best things they did. I think this was the first book I read which was written by an Indian author. Based in the mighty Himalayas, it was the story of two children trekking the treacherous mountains led by their uncle. It made me very curious about how the tallest mountain range in the world looked like. I would have the good fortune of visiting them and finding out a few years later and I will never forget the snow capped peaks visible from the balcony of our hotel room in Himachal Pradesh.
4. The World’s Greatest Cricket Matches (Norman Giller)
If there was one constant during summer holidays, it was games of cricket in the morning and evening with my friends. We would imitate bowling run ups, batting stances and generally get very competitive while partaking in this Indian pseudo-religion. When the national team was competing, we would be glued to our TV screens for hours, calculators in hand, trying to figure out the number of runs per over needed for our team to win. I remember my heart pounding when my favorite batsmen hit a six or when a dangerous opponent got out without making a difference.
Imagine my delight when I found this book on a dusty shelf at my aunt’s. It was an old book, with limp, yellowing pages and the typical old book smell. I hear people talk about the new book scent, but with an old book smell you start imagining about all the things that could have happened in that book’s life. How long did it sit in a store? How many hands had it changed? Was there a kid before me who was equally excited at discovering this book and spent hours turning words into mental images?
Filled with excellent descriptions of nail-biting games from the 1920s to the 1980s, the circumstances surrounding them and character sketches of stalwart players of the time, this is an exceptional read, If there ever was a way to romanticize old school cricket, this is it.
5. We The Living (Ayn Rand)
This book came into my life at the weirdest of times and in the most unexpected of ways. I was a senior in high school, preparing for my entrance exams for engineering colleges. Or at least I was supposed to.
Instead, I dove into a world of art. I was discovering multiple musicians a day, watching an acclaimed movie almost every night in the darkness of my room, and reading a TON of books. This didn’t really work out well for my exams, but I have no regrets and that is a story for another day.
During that time, our neighborhood was visited by a “mobile library” every Tuesday. Imagine a small, U-Haul like moving truck filled with shelves of books inside. The librarian was a lanky man with long flowing hair and a mustache. He was always dressed modestly in a striped shirt, trousers and a cap. For a nominal monthly fee ( <$5), we could jump in and pick out 3 books each week. And most weeks, I would have finished reading the books before the librarian rattled the truck down our lane again. I would know it’s him just from the sound.
One week, maybe because I was not around or maybe because my mother was heading out to the supermarket anyway, she returned the previous week’s books and picked out the new ones. I remember being mildly annoyed with her for getting a book from an author I had never heard of before. Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I picked up the book, turned to the first page and got completely sucked into it. Here I am, a decade later, telling you to put this on your shelf. I still remember the names of the characters — Kira Argunova and Leonard, and their tragic story of being free thinkers mired in communist Russia.
I hope browsing through this list was fun and that you even found a book or two to add to your reading list. If not, maybe this helped you pick out an interesting present for a kid in your life.
Remember, you don’t have to read what society expects someone your age to read. Pick up something that makes you feel excited, even if it is a comic book! In a world where online content has annihilated attention spans, making us judge, label and give up on things in the blink of an eye, be someone who gives people and ideas a chance to grow, improve and pay dividends.
Fellow bookworms, should I do a second part of this list?
(Disclaimer: I have not been paid to advertise these books)
